Haworth Tompkins have taken part in a virtual event with The Social Mobility Foundation about COVID and the Built Environment. Several studio members gave presentations on various aspects of our work over the past eighteen months. Nick Royce spoke about HT; our structure and how we use working groups to improve the way we function, design and respond to challenges.
Deeksha Audukoori, Diana Al-laham and Sian Bahia highlighted their differing routes to working at the practice, covering various subjects including school and university projects, applying for jobs and now working remotely. Alex Cox related the practice’s record on reacting to the climate emergency, alongside focusing on three of our in progress projects, and how they have been changed by the pandemic.
Nick and Alex then led two workshops looking at the ways in which we could improve the pandemic resilience of two of our built projects; Silchester and the Bridge Theatre. Students contributed ideas to a live mark-up of a set of drawings considering how the buildings were already suited to various pandemic safety criteria, such as the presence of open spaces and natural ventilation. Improvements were then suggested as to how the buildings could be future proofed, with space for working from home and social distancing measures in place.
Haworth Tompkins have been appointed to a newly launched £500 million consultancy framework. Operated by LHC, the six-year multi-disciplinary framework can be used by a wide range of public sector clients for specialist areas including masterplanning, housing, industrial buildings, and conservation and heritage. Successful tenders were evaluated across several areas, with the aim of enabling organisations 'to access high quality pre-approved suppliers’.
Despite its many challenges, 2021 has been a year to celebrate. We mark our 30th anniversary with a Monograph covering the work we have completed in our first thirty years, pictured above, which will be launched early next year. We welcomed two new directors – Joanna Sutherland and Lucy Picardo – whilst Steve Tompkins, received an MBE for services to architecture and the arts in the Queen’s Birthday Honours and we saw our studio grow to over 100 strong. The year has reinforced the importance of the collective wellbeing of our staff, our society and our planet and as such our resolution for the year ahead is to find new and better ways to work that will support and sustain the social and environmental ecosystem of which we are part.We are looking forward to 2022 and wish all our staff, clients and collaborators a very Happy New Year.
Our mixed-use project, redeveloping the Greenhill Centre site for Newham Council, has received planning approval. The scheme includes 81 Passivhaus certified, affordable homes, a communal garden and a reprovided gym. Work starts in site in Spring 2022 with completion expected in 2024.
Our major restoration of the historically important Theatre Royal Drury Lane is up for three awards. The Architects' Journal Retrofit Awards has shortlisted the project in two categories - Cultural and Religious Building, and Listed Building. The venue is also a contender for Theatre Building of the Year at The Stage Awards. Winners will be announced for both in the New Year.
Haworth Tompkins are taking part in this year's Gingerbread City, organised by the Museum of Architecture. On the theme of 'Nature on the City', our plaza design depicts the emergence of nature, existing in an rewilded urban setting, with an algae-filled ecological pool and tiered fountain. The pop-up show is on now in London until 9 January.
Industria, our innovative multi-storey industrial project for Be First in Barking, has started on site. The development will deliver 11,000sqm of space across four floors, with van ramps and decks serving 45 Light Industrial and Flatted Factory units of varying sizes, alongside a public café, business hub, rooftop breakout space, and seven-metre tall ‘shopfront’ units on ground floor. McLaren have been engaged as main contractor on the project, with completion expected in early 2023.
Haworth Tompkins have been compiling a sustainable materials database, available as an open source resource. Diana Dina and Nick Royce worked alongside members of several Architects Declare signatory practices from the UK and across Europe to start this ongoing project. For more details, click here.
Our project for Malmö Stadsteater has started on site. The refurbishment of the 19th century Swedish theatre, originally designed as a circus amphitheatre, includes reconnecting the auditorium to the street by the creation of a new link building that part covers an existing courtyard, providing an informal events space. Alongside the redevelopment of the front of house and café, the project also involves a full refurbishment of the auditorium, increasing capacity to 520 using an adaptable layout, making it more suitable to host the theatre’s expanding repertoire.